Abby's Story - Help Abby Grow

Abby's Story - Help Abby Grow

And now the story of a brave five-year-old girl.
WFFT’s Andrew Logsdon's daughter Abigail has undergone several surgeries, and has several more coming up in the next year.
Along with the pain of those surgeries comes thousands of dollars in medical bills.
Here's Abby's story.

And now the story of a brave five-year-old girl.

WFFT’s Andrew Logsdon's daughter Abigail has undergone several surgeries, and has several more coming up in the next year.

Along with the pain of those surgeries comes thousands of dollars in medical bills.

Here's Abby's story.

"So far in her short life she's already had several surgeries, she's been in the hospital several times, we're looking at number ten so far for surgeries and hospital stays,” says Abby’s mom, Kristin Logsdon.

It's been a precarious life for little Abigail Kimberly Logsdon.

At first glance, she seems to be your typical five year old.

But so far, she's endured more hospital trips and surgeries- than most people experience in a lifetime.

"Abigail is our little miracle child. She was born in 2008, almost five years old now, and we thought for the longest time, that we'd never be able to have children,” says Kristin.

"We'd been trying to get pregnant for a long time, we'd had, multiple miscarriages, and we'd done a few rounds of fertility drugs. And with Abby, she was the last bit of drugs we had,” say Abby’s dad, Andrew Logsdon.

Those extended hospital stays started just as her life began.

"After Abigail was born, we discovered that she had a whole laundry list of diagnoses that were completely out of the blue for us, and we had no idea,” says Kristin.

Doctors said she had the rare genetic disorders known as Goldenhar syndrome, and Klippel Fiel syndrome.

"It's extremely rare. The geneticist says that maybe one out of 25,000 to 50,000, even more than that, children have even a little bit aspect of what Abby has,” says Kristin.

Little's Abby's list of ailments is long.

She will always be small.

She was born with a cleft palate, which was surgically repaired when she was eighteen-months old.

She is deaf in the right ear- with no ear canal- and the lobe folded over, called a microtia.

She has several ribs and neck vertebrae fused on the right side-causing severe scoliosis.

And she is missing muscles in each of her hands.

At first, doctors were baffled.

"They had never seen anything like this before... No one really knew what to do, and we had no idea what to do. It really- we thought we were in over our heads,” says Andrew.

Today, Abby is in preschool.

And through the schools, and programs like Turnstone in Fort Wayne, Abby has battled through her physical disabilities- with physical, occupational, and speech therapies.

"We don't often see children with as many issues going on as Abby has going on,” says Turnstone physical therapist Roxy Rockwell.

Abby has to wear a hearing aid- called a BAHA.

She's also fitted with braces on her hands, and other orthopedic devices.

"She's currently wearing a back brace at night to help prevent her spinal scoliosis from progressing, but eventually she'll need surgery there,” Rockwell says.

In fact, she needs at least four surgeries in the next year.

"She's going to have a tendon transfer on each of her hands to give her more function in her hand. She's missing this muscle, the big, meaty muscle under the thumb called the thenar eminence, so they're going to take a tendon from the pinky, move it over, and it will give her more opposition and more strength,” says Kristin.

In October, doctors will do the right hand, and after weeks over recovery, the left.

All those surgeries, and hospital trips, take place at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.

"We're anticipating with each surgery, we'll be down at riley for at least a week,” says Kristin.

"The hospital bills are immense. And they keep piling up. And it's not just going to the doctor and getting a bill, it's taking a trip to go to the hospital, and all the things surrounding that,” says Andrew.

And that's something that goes beyond what a typical family can do.

"We set up a charity through Give Forward. It's a charity website where you set a goal, and a time limit, and people can log into that and donate cash. They can do it anonymously, they can do it as themselves, they can leave a message, and it helps add to that total,” says Andrew.

And every gift goes a long way in helping Abby along her long road to recovery.